


the mistletoe curse

by montecarlos



Category: Motorcycling RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bodyswap, Fluff, Getting Together, Kissing, Love Confessions, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:42:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28031829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/montecarlos/pseuds/montecarlos
Summary: Maverick bolts out of the bed, leaving a confused Tom behind towards what he assumes is the bathroom and stops in front of the mirror to see Fabio’s face staring back at him. Staring into eyes that are no longer dark brown, but green-hazel, he takes in the sight of himself, reaching out to press a hand through messy blonde hair.(or a story about maverick and fabio swapping bodies due to some mistletoe magic.)
Relationships: Fabio Quartararo/Maverick Viñales
Comments: 1
Kudos: 26





	the mistletoe curse

**Author's Note:**

  * For [firetruckyeah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/firetruckyeah/gifts).



> This fic has fought me a fair bit over the past few days - and I wanted to get another one done before next week, because work is getting a little hectic. I've done a bodyswap fic before for a different fandom but I liked the premise of this one, an idea which was given to me by D, so thank you for the inspiration bb! This is set at the end of this season - we will just pretend that they can have a Christmas party, there's a fair bit of artistic licence with this one anyways!
> 
> This fic is for the lovely C, who writes amazing Mavio fics - and was one of my first readers and supporters when I first began writing MotoGP fic, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas my dear and that you enjoy this <3

_Popular belief suggests that, in order to have good luck and happiness, you must kiss your love under the mistletoe. In case you avoid this, bad luck will follow you forever.  
  
_

* * *

  
Maverick had barely noticed the sprig of mistletoe hanging above the drinks table at the Christmas party until Aleix had pointed it out midway through the party, his voice audible over the crappy Christmas music. He had been trying to avoid a rather drunken Fabio, determined to make up for his poor end to the season by getting as drunk as he could and flirting with his future teammate at any opportunity. They had been dancing around each other all season, but Maverick always tried to keep the Frenchman at arm’s length - until Fabio cornered him over by the punchbowl.  
  
“Oh, pucker up Viñales!” Aleix calls out, cutting through their conversation as he wiggles his eyebrows and points up at the offending shrubbery, which Maverick is almost certain he placed there himself. Maverick glances up at the mistletoe and back down at Fabio who is smiling widely at him and he feels the panic grip his chest. He can’t do this, he can’t bring himself to kiss Fabio.  
  
“Maverick?” Fabio cocks his head, hurt evidently spreading across his face. “What’s wrong?”  
  
“I can’t-”  
  
“You have to kiss whoever is under the mistletoe with you, Maverick! It’s bad luck if you don’t kiss Fabio!” Aleix says, waving his finger around, a wide grin plastered onto his face.  
  
Maverick shakes his head and steps out from beneath the offending spring. “I’m sorry, I’ll take my chances,”  
  
He pretends not to see the look of pure disappointment on Fabio’s face as he turns on his heel and heads towards the bar. He needs another drink, anything to get the image of hazel-green eyes out of his mind.  
  


* * *

  
“Rise and shine, sunshine,”  
  
Maverick jolts awake the next morning after the annual Christmas party, realising that he is not in his own bed. He’s definitely still in Andorra - he can see the snow-capped mountains through the gauzy curtains of the bedroom, but it’s definitely not the view that he is used to seeing from his own apartment. He rolls over to see Tom standing in the doorway of the bedroom, smiling widely and his heart wrenches as he forces himself upright. _Did they sleep together? Wasn’t Tom straight? Didn’t he have a girlfriend?_ _  
__  
_Tom cocks his head slightly. “Fabs, are you okay?”  
  
“What?” Maverick asks, realising that his voice sounds different.  
  
Tom moves closer towards the bed and sits down, his hand brushing against Maverick’s face. “You still hungover mate? I told you not to drink too much at the Christmas party didn’t I?”  
  
Maverick remains silent and Tom’s face looks worried. “Fabio, you okay?”  
  
“Wha-” Maverick begins, only to see the dark ink curling around his right arm instead of his left, his mouth turning dry as he takes in the familiar black and grey ink of the pin-up nun, the tiger curling around the bottom of his lower arm. Maverick bolts out of the bed, leaving a confused Tom behind towards what he assumes is the bathroom and stops in front of the mirror to see Fabio’s face staring back at him. Staring into eyes that are no longer dark brown, but green-hazel, he takes in the sight of himself, reaching out to press a hand through messy blonde hair. He’s shirtless, and whilst Maverick is no stranger to seeing Fabio shirtless (he follows his future teammate on Instagram after all), there’s something different about seeing it up close - the dark blonde dusting of hair disappearing beneath the obnoxious pink boxer shorts Maverick finds himself wearing - and he blushes deeply.  
  
“Fabs?” Tom knocks on the bathroom door once. “You okay in there?”  
  
“Yeah,” Maverick calls out, silently relieved that he seems to understand and speak French somehow. “Just felt a bit sick, I might go out for a run,”  
  
Tom chuckles behind the door. “Mate, maybe you should lay off the exercise today and rest? One day won’t destroy those abs you’ve been building,”  
  
Maverick silently thanks Fabio for loving exercise so much. “No, I think I’ll go for a run,”  
  
Tom sighs heavily. “Well, at least wear a jacket? It’s cold out there, you don’t want hypothermia,”  
  
Maverick lets out a laugh. He has no intention of going outside without a shirt on, certainly not to go to his own apartment and see if Fabio is there. It’s able to find something in Fabio’s closet that passes as workout gear amongst the garish bright hoodies and motorcycle gear and saying goodbye to Tom and Mathilde, he slides on his Nikes and leaves the house. It takes him a moment to get his bearings - but it turns out that Fabio lives about ten minutes away from his apartment. It’s easy enough to remember the key code to enter the building, but he pauses as he finally reaches the front door and realises that his own body will be in possession of his apartment keys. He knocks twice, worrying his lip - and finally, the door is opened - and Maverick jolts at the sight of his own face staring back at him wide-eyed. Fabio has presumably just rolled out of bed, Maverick remembers putting on those grey sweatpants last night before he collapsed into his bed, his hair mussed.  
  
“Wha-?” Fabio whispers, glancing at Maverick with wide eyes. “What is going on?”  
  
Maverick brushes past the younger man who is currently occupying his body - he wants to have this conversation in the privacy of his own apartment. “It’s me, Maverick. We switched bodies, you’re me and I’m you,”  
  
Fabio glances at himself in the mirror, his hands brushing against his own face, against the dark facial hair that is now growing on his chin. “How?” He spins around. “How could this happen?”  
  
Maverick opens and closes his mouth at the sight of his own dark eyes staring at him. It’s unnerving to say the least - to see your own reflection looking back at you, coupled with the fact that Fabio is usually few inches taller than him, makes him unsettled at the situation. “I don’t know-”  
  
“What did you do last night?” Fabio asks, folding his arms over his bare chest. (Although he’s in Maverick’s body, he still has the ability to be allergic to shirts).  
  
“Nothing,” Maverick protests, holding his hands up. “I went to bed straight after the party and I woke up in your house...wait, the party-”  
  
“What about the party?” Fabio raises one of his now thick, dark eyebrows.  
  
“The mistletoe-” Maverick whispers quietly. “Don’t you remember? There was that sprig of mistletoe hanging up by the drinks table last night, I think Aleix put it there-”  
  
“Yeah, you wouldn’t kiss me,” Fabio replies. “He said it was bad luck not to,”  
  
“You think this is the bad luck?” Maverick asks, confused.  
  
“Maybe,” Fabio’s tone is flat. “Why wouldn’t you kiss me anyways?”  
  
“I- I just couldn’t,” Maverick stutters out, feeling his cheeks warm up.  
  
“Why not?”  
  
Maverick sighs. It’s not the right time to talk about his crush on Fabio, certainly not when he’s occupying the younger man’s body. “Can we talk about this later? We need to work out how to switch back, we can’t be in each other’s bodies for the rest of our lives,”  
  
“How?” Fabio raises an eyebrow.  
  
Maverick pauses for a moment. “Maybe we need to reverse the bad luck? If we find some mistletoe and kiss underneath it, maybe that will get rid of the bad luck and we will switch back?”  
  
Fabio doesn’t look convinced. He rubs a hand over his face, his fingers catching on the facial hair that is now growing there. “So now you want to kiss me all of a sudden?”  
  
“Fabio-” Maverick begins, but Fabio turns on his heel and disappears towards his bedroom. Maverick follows him, to find Fabio hunting through his chest of drawers looking for a t-shirt to put on. “Fabs-” He tries again, but the younger man continues looking through the drawer for a shirt that appeals to him. Maverick watches Fabio pull on a slightly obnoxious Phillip Plein shirt he's had for a year or two.  
  
“Should you be in here? I’m getting dressed,” Fabio’s tone is curt, and slightly jarring to Maverick - hearing his own voice come from someone else’s mouth.  
  
Maverick wants to argue that it’s in fact his body that Fabio is in right now, but he thinks better of it and leaves the bedroom. Fabio appears a few moments later, wearing a pair of ripped jeans and one of Maverick’s more outlandish hoodies. “Should we go and find some mistletoe then?”  
  


* * *

  
“Do you think it has to be real mistletoe for it to work?” Fabio asks quietly, holding a branch of faux mistletoe in between his fingers.  
  
Maverick examines the branch carefully. “I think the branch at the party was real mistletoe, so we need to find the same thing,”  
  
The search starts off hopeful, but it soon turns into a disaster - the shops they try are all out of mistletoe with the holidays so close and aren’t expecting any more to arrive before Christmas. They scour high and low for anything that remotely resembles real mistletoe, but most places only offer fake sprigs of mistletoe or branches of holly, which Maverick is certain will not reverse the curse.  
  
“We’re never going to find any!” Fabio complains as they leave the final shop empty-handed. “This is impossible!”  
  
“Fabio-”  
  
“This is such a mess!” Fabio continues angrily as they stalk down the street - it’s becoming darker, the lights from the shops twinkling every so often and snow has started to fall, the chill beginning to set in.  
  
“Fabio-” Maverick says again, grabbing hold of the younger man by the wrist. “Fabio, wait-”  
  
“Why?” Fabio’s eyes - dark brown and so familiar to Maverick are dark with fury and rage. Maverick ignores the surge of warmth in his chest and points up, at a branch of mistletoe that is hanging down from the eaves of one of the buildings. Fabio’s eyes grew wide at the sight. “Mistletoe?”  
  
Maverick nods once, and they stare at each other for what feels like a few minutes - Maverick taking in the shape of his own face, of the light freckles across his nose, his cheeks slightly pink from the cold, brown eyes that he knows so well staring down at him and he closes the gap between them, his eyes falling shut. He has to lean down slightly to capture Fabio’s - his own, really - lips which are warm and slightly softer than he imagined. Fabio stiffens slightly at the contact before he reciprocates, his hands moving to curl around Maverick and pull him closer, deepening the kiss. Maverick never thought he would ever kiss Fabio, much less when he was inside the younger man’s body. He can feel Fabio’s facial hair grazing against his own bare chin and he can’t stop the groan that brushes past his lips, Fabio’s hand moving to tug at the slightly longer hair on top.  
  
They pull apart, their mouths still slick, panting slightly as they stare at each other. “We’re still the same-” Fabio whispers. “Why didn’t it work?”  
  
“I don’t know why-” Maverick begins.  
  
“You know, if you’d have just kissed me in the first place, then none of this would have happened! You should be angry too, we’re stuck like this until we can find a way to break this curse! I know you don’t want to be in my body, you made it quite clear that you don’t actually like me,”  
  
“What?” Maverick murmurs, his eyes widening with shock. “What do you mean?”  
  
“You never want to spend time with me! You only talk to me when there’s somebody else around, like I feel like you don’t even like me! Like it’s fine if you don’t want to be my friend, but we are teammates-”  
  
“I did want to kiss you,” Maverick finds himself blurting out.  
  
“What?” Fabio’s eyes are wide.  
  
“I did want to kiss you,” Maverick repeats, feeling his cheeks burn red again. “I just - the reason I did those things was because I wanted more, and I was afraid that you didn’t, so I pushed you away because I didn’t want to think about the rejection,” Fabio remains silent as Maverick continues, unable to stop himself from speaking. “I did want to kiss you, because I really like you, more than I should. I’m sorry, I should go-”  
  
However, Fabio reaches out and grabs his wrist, pulling him back. “Mack, wait, don’t go-”  
  
“But-” Maverick begins, only for Fabio to pull him forward, capturing his lips again - this time, it’s different. It’s still strange to be practically kissing himself, but it’s not as awkward, Fabio’s hands moving to cup at Maverick’s face, his lips slowly brushing over Maverick’s, his face slightly tilted to allow for the best angle. Maverick loses himself in the kiss, in the scent of his own cologne drifting up through his nostrils, Fabio’s calloused fingers brushing against his soft skin. He can feel the chill of the snow, their noses are cold as they move against each other, but all he can focus on is Fabio’s warm lips, his tongue moving to swipe against the seam of Maverick’s lips. Maverick opens his mouth and Fabio’s tongue slowly brushes against his own - it’s slightly clumsy, but it feels _right_.  
  
They pull apart, glancing at each other, trying to catch their breath. “I like you too, that’s what I wanted to say. Also, it was weird kissing myself…” Fabio murmurs. “But it felt good,”  
  
“Yeah,” Maverick whispers back. “But it still didn’t work,”  
  
“Well, last time we didn’t kiss, we both went home and went to sleep. Maybe if we go back to my place - or your place even, we might wake up as ourselves again?” Fabio smiles and holds out a hand. Maverick glances at the younger man, at his own face, his own smile and finds himself missing the gap-toothed smile he usually sees. He nods once and Fabio grabs his hand, tugging him back through the snow-covered streets towards Maverick’s place- Fabio doesn’t let go of Maverick’s hand once, not even when they finally step back into the warmth of the apartment.  
  


* * *

  
“Good morning, sunshine,” A familiar voice jolts Maverick awake from his slumber again, but this time, he glances up into hazel-green eyes and a wide gap-toothed smile. They’d ended up falling asleep in the same bed, curled around each other - but now, Maverick is back in his own body, the tattoo now covering his right hand instead of his left. He blinks once, brushing a hand over his face to feel the familiar sensation of his facial hair against his chin before he glances at Fabio again.  
  
“We’re back to normal,” Fabio grins widely. “It worked!”  
  
“Yeah, we are,” Maverick finds himself smiling back, Fabio’s excitement is certainly infectious.  
  
“So maybe now we could kiss properly? Now we’re back in our own bodies?” Fabio says, raising an eyebrow.  
  
“That sounds like a good idea,” Maverick replies, his grin widening as Fabio leans in again to claim his lips. **  
**


End file.
